Top bar

About POGO's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database (FCMD)

The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. In the absence of a centralized federal database listing instances of misconduct, the Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data. We believe that it will lead to improved contracting decisions and public access to information about how the government spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer money each year on goods and services. Report an instance of misconduct »

General Electric

Hanford Nuclear Reservation Litigation

Date: 06/23/2006

Misconduct Type: Health

Enforcement Agency: Non-Governmental

Contracting Party: Energy

Court Type: Civil

Amount: $227,508

Disposition: Judgment Against Defendant

Synopsis: In litigation that dates back to 1990, plaintiffs allege General Electric (among others) did not run the Hanford Nuclear Weapons Reservation in southeastern Washington state safely and failed to inform the public of health risks. They claim that radioiodine emissions, known as I-131, from the Hanford Reservation caused various cancers and other life-threatening diseases and seek damages under the Price-Anderson Act. In June 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court's dismissal of the claims of several thousand individuals suffering from cancer and/or other serious disease who attribute their illnesses to exposure to radioactive emissions from the Hanford facility. The appellate court also reinstated the testimony of 17 of plaintiffs’ expert witnesses. In an April 2005 “bellwether trial,” the jury found in favor of two plaintiffs, Steve Stanton and Gloria Wise, and awarded Stanton $227,508 and Wise $317,251. On appeal in 2007, the Ninth Circuit upheld the jury verdict for Stanton but reversed the verdict for Wise.